PLAN-Boulder County influence a topic of debate

Some believe group has outsized voice in city

From Boulder's extensive open space holdings to its height restrictions to the "blue line" that limits the city's westward expansion, PLAN-Boulder County has played a major role in shaping the policies that make the city what it is today.

But some Boulder residents say PLAN has become too influential, with its members holding a significant number of seats on the Boulder City Council and on the city's boards and commissions, and its policies have made the city less affordable.

"The Republicans have the Koch brothers, and this town has PLAN-Boulder," said Don Wrege, a resident of the Heatherwood neighborhood in Gunbarrel.

A county resident, Wrege sees PLAN behind the county land use and spending policies that have led the county to ask some residents to tax themselves more to pay for subdivision street maintenance.

Mark Gelband, director of the Be Colorado Wellness Program at the University of Colorado and a University Hill resident who has long been critical of city policy, said the PLAN philosophy permeates city government, whether it's pursuing a municipal electric utility or down-zoning the Goss Grove neighborhood to limit new student rentals being built.

"It's hard to argue that open space hasn't built a moat around the city," Gelband said. "It's hard to argue that it hasn't caused 60,000 middle class people commuting here. A lot of the land use rules they promote end up disenfranchising those who can least afford it."

PLAN opposed tax rededication proposals

Current PLAN co-chair Ray Bridges sees his organization as one voice among many in city government. Sometimes their view prevails. Other times it does not.

The group opposed the Flagstaff finish of last year's USA Pro Cycling Challenge Boulder stage because the city charter prohibits competitive events on open space. The City Council, including PLAN members, unanimously supported the race.

PLAN also opposes a plan to take a 0.15 percent sales tax currently dedicated to open space and ask voters to reallocate the money to road maintenance. That ballot measure also was unanimously supported by City Council.

"I know all the council members, and I'm cordial with all of them," Bridges said. "I know that very frequently they'll listen politely to me, and then they'll do what they think they should."

PLAN strongly supports keeping "four-body review" for the Area III Planning Reserve, a 500-acre area north of Jay Road and east of U.S. 36. That means that any project proposed for the area, which is outside the city's growth boundary but is nonetheless eligible for annexation if it meets a pressing community need, would have to be approved by the city's Planning Board, the Boulder City Council, the county's Planning Commission, and the Boulder County Commissioners.

A majority of the current City Council wants to reconsider that agreement when the comprehensive plan comes up for renewal in 2015 so that the city would have more say.

Most of the current council candidates, including several not endorsed by PLAN, support maintaining four-body review, but Boulder Mayor Matt Appelbaum, despite being a PLAN member and former chairman of the group, is a strong advocate of doing away with it.

PLAN still endorsed him.

"I didn't know if they would endorse me or not," he said. "I wasn't about to change my positions to get their endorsement."

PLAN opposed proposals to rededicate two open space sales taxes to roads and general fund needs, an idea that originated with Councilwoman K.C. Becker.

Voters will be asked this November to approve extensions of 0.33 percent and 0.15 percent sales taxes that expire in 2018 and 2019 that rededicate the money away from open space to other city needs. Of the 0.33 percent, 0.22 percent would go to open space through 2034, and 0.1 percent after that. The remainder of the 0.33 percent sales tax would go to the general fund. All of the 0.15 percent sales tax would go to roads for the first 10 years and to the general fund for the next 10 years.

PLAN has endorsed the reallocation of the 0.33 percent sales tax but opposes changing the 0.15 percent tax.

Even that endorsement was tepid.

"We were not particularly pleased with KC's approach," Bridges said. "We don't feel it's particularly honest to the voters to say we're extending this tax but we're doing it for something else."

Councilwoman KC Becker declined to be interviewed for this article.

Appelbaum: Community agrees with many PLAN principles

Gelband said PLAN may not prevail on every vote, but the group's approach to development and land use remains the dominant one in city government.

"If they don't have that much influence, why is there disproportionate representation on council and boards?" he asked.

Appelbaum said PLAN's opinions carry weight in the community, but that's because they reflect a sizable constituency, even if there aren't that many dues-paying members.

"The reason they have clout is this is a community that believes in many of these principles," Appelbaum said.

And PLAN members are highly visible on boards and commissions because people who are involved in the group tend to be active in the community in general.

Appelbaum said the people who complain the most about PLAN seem to have basic philosophical disagreements with the broader community consensus.

"They're people who disagree with every major decision the city has made in the last 40 years," he said.

Gelband agrees that PLAN represents a significant constituency in Boulder, but he thinks it has outsized influence, in large part because the city holds at-large rather than district or ward elections in off years, when turnout is low.

That allows the people who are the most organized to dominate city politics.

If the city had wards and council candidates had to some from east Boulder or north Boulder or the city portion of Gunbarrel, the makeup of the council would be very different, Gelband said.

Appelbaum strongly disagrees. In east Boulder County communities that have districts or wards, many candidates run unopposed, and some people are elected with just a few thousand votes.

"If anything, it would make it easier for a special interest to prevail," he said.

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